Townsend woman seeks help in finding lost family rings

TOWNSEND -- After losing a group of beloved family heirlooms, a Townsend woman is asking for the help and good will of her neighbors to find the missing items.

Cynthia Donovan Schuster was cooking dinner in late October when she looked down and realized she was missing three rings -- her mother's engagement ring and both of her parents' wedding bands.

"I was just weak," Donovan Schuster said.

Now that her father has passed away, Donovan Schuster said the rings have even more meaning

Although the rings have little monetary value, she said their sentimental value is high.

"In 2006, I was living in Florida when my father, who lived in Nova Scotia, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He asked me if there was any way I could go up and stay for a while. My boyfriend at the time, who is now my amazing husband, told me to go, and take all the time I need. I booked a flight for two weeks and ended up staying for three months, until my father passed. The night of the wake, the funeral director gave the family one last moment with our dad and he took off Dad's wedding band and handed it to my mother," Donovan Schuster said.

"As my mother was driving me to the Halifax airport to go back to Florida, she handed me dad's wedding band. She said she wanted me to have it. It meant more to me than anything in the world. I absolutely adored my father. She gave my older sister Kim her engagement ring and band.

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When Donovan Schuster married in 2007, her sister Kim gave her their mother's engagement ring and band because she did not have the means to buy an expensive engagement ring.

"Now, three children later, a beautiful old home in Townsend Harbor, great neighbors and a sense of security, I feel like the happiest, luckiest person in the world. But a piece of me is missing. I can't believe I lost the rings," she said.

Donovan Schuster said she rarely goes out, and may have dropped the rings in the parking lots of Hannaford's or Family Dollar, or in Timberlee Park where she took her children trick-or-treating.

"Some people may never even be tempted to come forward, but it would mean the world to me if anyone found it. And if they find one, the other two are probably not far off," she said.

'We are a family of five, and cannot afford to offer a big reward but I believe in the goodness of people and acts of kindness. I will forever be grateful and do whatever I can if someone comes forward with these rings."

Anyone finding the rings is asked to turn them in to the Townsend Police Department, where a report of the lost rings has been made.

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